I just ordered the Morgan Weistling DVD
 

Actually it's a four DVD set. With shipping it cost $200, but I would have gladly spent the same to sit in his studio and watch him paint a portrait start-to-finish. So I'll watch from my TV room instead.

The video is ten hours long, and he paints from life, with the entire process documented on camera. I think it's money well spent.

It's time to start painting. I've waited too long. Don't expect me to post the results here for quite some time. I'm sure many will go into the trash before any are worth a crit.

I'll let you know how I like the video

Jeff

I still didn't order it, but he told me it is better than a workshop.
Let me know how you liked it when it arrives.

Jeff, I've taken a workshop from him and I think he is a wonderful teacher, I'll be interested in your review. :)

I have the video as well. It is very well shot and edited. There are plenty of good views of what Morgan is doing on his palette as well as how he approaches the canvas etc. It actually starts out with stretching the canvas! It is extremely thorough and fun to watch.
There are also side bar style explanations of various things not involving the immediate painting. Very instructional.

It is so wonderful to have an instructional/demo video that is more than a couple of hours long. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of minutes of demonstration with narrative and tips in this video. You won't tire of it quickly, and it's well organized. It's easy to go directly to a section for review.

It's here!
 

I ordered it yesterday during my lunch break. I did not order next day delivery -- just regular UPS ground.

This morning I got an email saying it had been shipped, and now it's in hand.

The distributor is in Houston, which isn't all that far from here (about a five-hour drive), so it was quick.

I'll start watching after work tonight.

Hi Jeff--Sooooo you're finally taking the plunge into paint! :) This video sounds really interesting, let us know what you think. . .

Here's my first impression. I've only watched two discs so far, which took all evening. There are two to go.

I really must say that if they had stopped at disc two, it would still be worth the money they charge. The information in these videos is a real eye opener. Weistling stresses values and color temperature. He's not a colorist, and he doesn't like to dwell on the subject. This wins points with me, as I feel that people get too carried away with color. Most Rembrandts have very little color. It's the values and color temperature that do the real work.

Despite this, he has many colors on his palette, though they often get mixed into different grays. He admits that the initial value work could be done in monochrome, but the variety adds interest to the painting.

I don't want to give away too much of the information from the videos, but even if I did, nothing compares to actually watching him paint. Just watching it has given me confidence that I can do this. Weistling doesn't stand on ceremony. Mix, apply, and see if it works. If it doesn't, mix some more. He believes in observation over academics, and there's no fancy brushwork. If the right values are applied to the right places, you get a painting. I'm over-simplifying, of course, as there's a lot of valuable information on the videos, but he really does seem to be saying "Relax, people. It's only painting."

How well I apply these lessons remains to be seen. This morning I re-watched some of what I watched last night. I want to have a firm grasp of his lessons before I start to paint. I'm thinking I may not begin with portraits. At least, not people. Years ago I painted a portrait of our cats. It's the only painting of mine that still exists, as far as I know. We have a different crop of cats now, and they deserve to be immortalized as much as the others did, so I believe that's where I'll begin.

I'll keep you posted.

p.s. I was a little bothered that he repeatedly used a laser pointer to point to facial features on the model. The laser light, which can damage retinas, came dangerously close to the girl's eyes on occasion. I hope he doesn't make a regular practice of this.

Hello Jeff

Many thanks for your review! It seems was a good buy.

laser pointer: maybe you can send this link to him.
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/Me...nter_engl.html